Some Notes On 'Dreams From My Father' by Barack O
April 20th 2009 23:12
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Dissecting The Text
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The American front cover
When I picked up the book, I regarded the title as a bit awkward, but decided to postpone my judgment of its level of resonance till my glance had bounced off the last bound page with text. Having now done so, I think it's likely that Barack spent some time deliberating over which the better choice  'of' or 'from'. Perhaps I too would have chosen the more esoteric of the two if I had presented myself with this particular dilemma. An 'of' would have been meaningful because not only did he have dreams about his almost always absent dad, but most his growing up was informed by a certain positively inspirational image of him that he later had to re-evaluate to some extent.
You may be surprised to note Obama's tendency to dwell upon issues of race a lot, as his racial and personal identity is a central theme of the book. I was curious to read about his passing mention of being conscious that, as a black man, making a sudden movement in a public sphere opened up to other (presumably non-black) people regarding him with suspicion. He doesn't go into his feelings about this observation. In fact, I was disappointed by just how little he does go into his feelings. Obama seems to assume that the reader will infer his feelings if he describes his exact situation with accuracy and attention to detail, which is the biggest problem about this book. The most startling absence of emotional description was his treatment of his conversion to Christianity. Apparently attending Rev. Wright's sermon on 'The Audacity of Hope' made such a big impact on him that it reduced him to tears and inspired him to take up the faith. And yet, Obama shows the most fleeting glimpses of his emotional journey, preferring to say that he found himself in tears than actually going into his emotional revelation. It's unavoidable: this is just underdeveloped storytelling. I also found it disappointing that he barely deals with his love life at all, although he mentions having his heart broken several times.
For the most part, however, the book is reasonably compelling (mainly because Obama insists on being 'reasonable' if he were to do away with the modernist ideals he would be even more engaging). I wasn't too deterred, nor too inspired  instead, I got into a rhythm of making regular progress through it, and marvelled at having finished my first book of the year  all 442 pages (though that says more about me than the book). While this text is not particularly exceptional in terms of literary technique (Obama himself notes that he wishes he could rewrite bits and pieces, transform certain sentences into more desirable shapes), it provides a glimpse into the current President's formative experiences with racial and social issues, politics and activism, apathy, ambition and national identity.
Obama's book will no doubt be particularly an inspiration to young black Americans in creating their own identity and thinking outside the box of discontent that being in a minority can lead you to thrust yourself into. He serves as a more than capable role model when writing about the use of the controversial word 'nigger' within the black community, offering a comforting negation of the slur's so-called empowering qualities when 'reclaimed':
Often the word nigger replaced black in such remarks, a word I'd once liked to think was spoken in jest, with a knowing irony, the inside joke that marked our resilience as a people. Until the first time I heard a young mother use it on her own child to tell him he wasn't worth shit, or watched teenage boys use it to draw blood in a quick round of verbal sparring. The transformation of the word's original meaning was never complete; like the other defences we erected against possible hurt, this one, too, involved striking out at ourselves first.
I was excited when I realised that Barack would be writing about his time in Indonesia and Kenya, however if you're looking for a descriptive travelogue (the action also takes him to Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Spain and elsewhere in Europe) you will have to look elsewhere. As when he is describing Indonesia, where he spent three years of his childhood as "a land where fatalism remained a necessary tool for enduring hardship," Barack is quick to succinctly analyse the political intricacies of the environments he explores, but he seems to either have a limited understanding of, or a disinterest in, the cultural aspects of his experience.
Perhaps it is because he is so determined to emphasise what he struggles to believe is an underlying universality to human experience - [ ] they'd offer a story to match or confound mine, a knot to bind our experiences together ] As time passed, I found that these stories, together, had helped me bind my world together, that they gave me the sense of place and purpose I'd been looking for. [ ] There was always a community there if you dug deep enough. [ ] There was poetry as well  a luminous world always present beneath the surface, a world that people might offer as a gift to me, if I only remembered to ask - that Obama's descriptions of people not in his family are not heavy on characterisation, and that he neglects exploring and ultimately falling in love with what might be called each person's 'alien' appeal - how a person may be simultaneously alarming in their alluringness, and alluring in their alarming qualities.
Thankfully he isn't preachy about his religious beliefs, referring to the necessity of finding a faith "born out of hardship, a faith that wasn't new, that wasn't black or white or Christian or Muslim but that pulsed in the heart of the first African village and the first Kansas homestead, Â a faith in other people" more than anything. Dreams suggests to me that he started out by socialising with black people mainly, and developed an interest in other minority groups much later, since there is almost no mention of Latinos or Asians, and no mention of homosexuals in this book, which was written while he was studying for a postgraduate degree in law at Harvard University.
My favourite passage of his was a paragraph in the third section of his book, when he travels to Kenya:
What is a family? Is it just a genetic chain, parents and offspring, people like me? Or is it a social construct, an economic unit, optimal for child rearing and divisions of labor? Or is it something else entirely: a store of shared memories, say? An ambit of love? A reach across the void?
Barack doesn't try to find answers to this stream of questions, but lets the questions inspire him in themselves, something which takes a lot of personality and integrity. I find this inspiring, and it makes his charismatic, yet dangerous pursuit of Progress as represented by "Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black" and "[Â ] in the conversation itself [on legal issues], in the joining of forces, I find myself modestly encouraged, believing that so long as the questions are still being asked, what binds us together might somehow, ultimately, prevail," less intolerable. In the latter quote he displays knowledge of the limits of societal progression, dealing with the maddening realisation that change is slow with something that approaches equanimity. It is very moving to know that he has exponentially increase the rate of this change (pretending that it could somehow be measured) singlehandedly by becoming the first black President in the history of the United States of America. So perhaps, in that sense, he has now become the embodiment of the dream of many black men (and though it might seem heaven sent / we still ain't ready to see a black President, rapped Tupac Shakur in 1995's Changes), his father included - for which father doesn't fantasise about their child becoming the most powerful person in the world?
A different cover
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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i guess it must be difficult as a politician to know how much of your emotional responses to disclose, esp being a black politician and knowing that some people will be raking through his life and statements with a fine toothed comb
i remember conservatives criticising an essay Michelle Obama wrote in college regarding race relations and being one of the few African American women on campus . . . they absolutely crucified her, claiming she was racist against white people and other such rubbish
very interesting post, im glad you wrote it
Comment by Postmodern Critic
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I'm not sure if Barack wanted to run for office while he was writing the book... he doesn't mention such ambitions, though he does say that, looking back, he can see his days as a community organiser in Chicago as being part of the greater picture of his career, so who knows. Either way, he seems to value his privacy, which perhaps comes from being a role model to other blacks and minority groups from a young age?
Thanks for the info on the Michelle Obama essay and its reception, do you have any idea where I could find it?
Comment by Morgan Bell
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actually its more of a thesis, it is called "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community"
Comment by Postmodern Critic
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I wanted to add to this review that it was interesting to find out that when he moved to Chicago Obama discovered that the mayor, Harold Washington, was black, and no doubt found someone to admire and perhaps even emulate in him. Barack represents a conversation he had at a black-owned barber shop regarding this figure, in which Harold emerges to the reader as an iconic and iconoclaustic individual who made a deep impact on the black community. The black customers exhibit a euphoric sense of pride, stressing how his election was an unforgettable moment, and I imagined that many black Americans would be having a similar conversation about Obama's own election to the Presidency, many years later. I had never thought about who Obama's role models might be, and since he is the first black President I hadn't given thought to what kind of precedents there might have been for him to be influenced by, but it just goes to show that if you are determined to succeed you will make the best of each situation where the odds are around you.
Is there any event without some kind of precedent, I wonder?